Urban agriculture taking root in Montreal yards and rooftops

Builder Emmanuel Cosgrove tending to his vegetables on his rooftop garden, at his eco-house on Avenue Du Parc in November 2007.
Photograph by Graham Hughes, The Gazette

Community groups get green thumbs

By Monique Beaudin
The Gazette
April 19, 2010

Bean stalks wending their way up a concrete wall at McGill University’s downtown campus, tomato plants growing next to a community centre in Notre Dame de Grâce, basil and chard in the back yard of a St. Laurent duplex.

They’re all part of a wave of urban agriculture sweeping the island of Montreal.

Montreal has always been a leader in the field, said Vikram Bhatt, an architecture professor at McGill University whose Minimum-Cost Housing Group at McGill has been involved in urban agriculture projects here and around the world since the 1970s.

The city of Montreal’s community gardens – 97 in all, some with as few as 12 plots, others with more than 300 – are wildly popular, with waiting lists of up to three years for would-be gardeners.

Unfortunately, Bhatt said, the city hasn’t expanded the community-garden network, though community and non-profit groups are stepping in with their own gardening projects.

Alternatives, a Montreal-based non-governmental organization that works to create sustainable societies, has launched a successful rooftop gardening program in different locations around the city, and helps community groups reclaim land – like school yards or rooftops – to be used for food production.

Tim Murphy coordinates a garden for Santropol Roulant, a non-profit organization in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough that runs a meals-on-wheels program, mainly for seniors, but also for other people experiencing a loss of autonomy.

The group cooks with vegetables and herbs from the garden, and also has begun delivering produce in vegetable boxes to its clients during the summer and fall.

“We’re happy to tell our clients we use these organically produced, very local and healthy fresh vegetables,” Murphy said.

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